Taipei

I’ll be honest. Taipei is not a beautiful city. 

The architecture is boxy and utilitarian. The condition of most buildings is… used. 

But Taipei has its charm. 

What I appreciate most about this city is that it feels foreign, yet at the same time, accessible. I don’t know about you, but when I leave the country, I want to feel like I’ve left the country. However, I admit that getting out and exploring can sometimes be intimidating when you can’t read the signs. But relax, you can’t get lost in Taipei because it’s super easy to navigate. Their subway system is fantastic, and taxis are plentiful and inexpensive. But the real reason you’ll never get lost in Taipei is because everyone speaks English. Not to each other. They speak Taiwanese, of course. What I mean is that they can speak English. Seriously, Taiwan must have amazing schools because the population is multi-lingual.  

And as long as we’re talking about stressful travel situations… as a woman, I sometimes feel apprehensive when setting off to explore alone. However, that’s never the case in Taipei. 

Taipei is safe. I’m sure the city has crime, but I don’t see or feel it. In fact, the ATM at the bank was located off the street, down a dark stairwell. I think we all know what would be down a dark stairwell in most cities. But in Taipei, you’ll just find a well-lit ATM machine stocked full of cash. Oh yeah, and an umbrella stand with a bunch of umbrellas you can help yourself to, in case you forgot yours. 

Those are practical reasons to love Taipei, but my heart loves Taipei, too. And since my heart is located in my stomach, I must talk about the food.   

Taiwanese people LOVE food. Food is such a part of the culture that it’s a wonder everyone isn’t fat. You may be thinking, “What makes her such an expert? She’s not Taiwanese.” Well, I’ll give you two pieces of evidence. 

1. (anecdotal) Every time I work a flight to Taipei, my Taiwanese flying partners proudly and generously bring a ton of food to share. This isn’t common for other destinations but is on my Taipei flights. Last week, one of my flying partners raced through the airport, hurrying to pick up peanut butter custard buns. He had placed his order in advance to deliver these decadent buns to the crew while still warm. See, proud and generous.

2. Night Markets: 

Taiwan is probably best known for its Night Markets. And for good reason. The Night Markets are so much fun and, no surprise, all about food. Sure, they also offer some shopping and some gaming,

(check out the prizes)

as well as, some pampered pet promenading.

But the main attraction is the food stalls.   

I’ve recently discovered these waffles. They come in all sorts of shapes… rooster, motorcycle, parrot, pig, elephant, handgun…

One of my favorite treats is shaved ice. Taiwanese shaved ice is a very distant relative to the American snow cone. In fact, the only thing they share in common is ice. Instead of topping it with sweet syrup, as we do in the US, they top it with all sorts of things like creamed corn, beans, and tapioca fruit. I’m not sure why it works, but I don’t question it. It just does.     

There’s beans inside!

Another favorite is milk tea. Did you know that the Taiwanese invented bubble tea? Yep. In the 1980s.

Thank you, Taiwan.       

But there’s more to this city than safe streets and tasty food. Taipei has some beautiful sights. 

Such as this temple 

Built in 1738, Banga Lungshan Temple has withstood earthquakes, typhoons, termites, and a mistaken allied bombing during WWII.

The bomb destroyed the main hall, but left the Buddha unscathed.

However, the city’s crown jewel is the 101-story skyscraper, appropriately named Taipei 101.

Once the tallest building in the world, still the tallest building in Taiwan, it towers over the entire city. You can visit the observation deck for around $18 US. 

The view is amazing, but what’s more amazing is the elevator.   

89 floors in 37 seconds!!

Every year, the city of Taipei hosts a New Year’s Eve celebration, which launches a massive fireworks display from this centerpiece. 

I understand most of the city’s citizens fill the streets to ring in the new year together. I’d like to see that one of these years.

And maybe from the swimming pool on the roof of our layover hotel?

Right there.

Bagged Lunch

I was nineteen years old, the first time I visited Taiwan. I tagged along during winter break with my friend, Ingrid -the English name she gave herself. She was returning home for the first time since moving to the United States as a 7th grader. That’s when we met. I saw Ingrid on her first day of middle school. She was standing in the quad, looking lost and terrified, clutching a bagged lunch. At that time, she didn’t speak a word of English. With hand motions and my tone of voice, I extended an invitation to join me for lunch. 

Fast forward seven years, and I was the foreigner in a new land. My memories of that long-ago trip are like a box of printed pictures stored in the closet. Random and faded. 

• I learned exactly three words in Chinese that I still know today: hello, thank you, and passion fruit -a new and aptly named fruit.   Passion (noun) strong and barely controllable emotion
• Dropping weight off my already slim 19-year-old body because we ate boiled cabbage every day and never any sweets. 
• Attending an elaborate wedding banquette where guests gifted large amounts of money -duly recorded upon entrance. The beautiful bride looking like a doll wearing white, and then red, and then sparkles. We dined for hours at enormous round tables. They served course after course until I could no longer eat another bite despite everyone at the table imploring me to “try this.” 
• Grocery shopping with Ingrid’s mother, watching her pick out a live chicken, and then returning for it later -cleaned and plucked. At the market, she also bought me passion fruit and quail eggs. Ingrid lied and told her mother that I loved quail eggs. I did not. I loved passion fruit; Ingrid loved quail eggs. But they were expensive -a splurge for an honored guest. This lie would come back to bite us. 
• Going to the temple with her hunched-over but surprisingly sprite grandma, where we made an offering, and I awkwardly prayed in a cloud of incense. 
• The night market. All my senses stimulated with its foreign sights, smells, sounds, and tastes.   

The final picture I hold in my mind. 

By the way, that’s another story. Ingrid’s dad offered to develop my photos, but the film somehow got exposed, and I lost all my (physical) pictures from the trip.

• A bus tour we took with her great aunt. I can no longer recall the destination, only the journey. We were 2 college girls among a bus full of senior citizens. Driving through the Taiwanese countryside, they were passing around a microphone karaoke-ing in Chinese as soft porn was playing on the tv screens. Ingrid and I had boarded the senior citizen party bus to Mars. 

Knowing that Americans ate sandwiches, Ingrid’s mom thoughtfully packed my lunch for the road: a special sandwich of sliced tomato, sliced green apple, and cold fried pork. Another first. 

I wonder what was in Ingrid’s bagged lunch. 

Maybe cabbage?

For sure, nothing sweet. 

And definitely not quail eggs.